There are days you come across some stories and you go ‘wow!’ and there are some that tends to give one migraine. This is an incredible story of the case
of Okikijesu Olawuyi whose survival apart from God was also facilitated by Global
Initiative for Peace Love and Care (GIPLC) an NGO based in Abuja with a
strong bias for orphans and vulnerable children.
Okiki was born in May 11 2010 without more than half of her skull. A
rare medical condition called Congenital Cranial Deficiency.
All of the hospitals visited by their organisation home and abroad could
not offer a cure or lacked the facilities and manpower except for the
John Hopkins hospital in Maryland, Baltimore USA where the director of
Paediatrics, Dr Ben Carson, is the first doctor to handle an issue like
this ever, only then it was on a conjoined twins joined at their heads
(the Binder twins).
When GIPLC became involved in Okiki’s case and after due consultations,
inquiries and findings as to how much it will cost to have Okiki
treated, they were able to raise within the space of 72 hours the sum of
$234,000 (two hundred and thirty four thousand USD) or N37,000,000
(thirty seven million naira) and deposited the complete sum to the John
Hopkins Medical which was their required deposit to commence the series
of surgery on Okiki. She will now leave Nigeria in the company of her
parents for the USA by April 2013.
Okiki is not the first
child GIPLC has sponsored overseas for Medical attention. They have for a
period of six years raised over N120,000,000 (one hundred and twenty
million naira) for children with debilitating medical condition. (See it here – www.giplc.org)
Okiki’s is special because no NGO in the history of Nigeria has
accomplished this feat, to raise the sum of N37,000,000 for a single
individual!
GIPLC World Press Conference comes up at Transcop Hilton in Abuja on the
26th of March 2013.
